Do you know what the will of God is?

 'Wherefore in the practice of obedience the believer goes through the following steps:

(a) willingness to do God’s will (John 7.17);

(b) revelation of that will to his intuition by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5.17) ;

(c) strengthening by God to will His will (Phil. 2.13) ; and

(d) strengthening by God to do His will (Phil. 2.13).

God never substitutes Himself for the believer in carrying out His will; consequently, upon knowing the

will of God he must will to do it and then draw upon the power of the Holy Spirit to work it out.'

Excerpt - The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee

Joh 7:17  If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

Eph 5:17  Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. 

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 

Will you do God's will? Do you have a willingness to do God's will? Do you understand what the will of the Lord is? Does God work in you willing you to do His will? Does God work in you to do His will?

Before you answer yes to any of the above questions think about them for a moment. 

The bigger question may be is- what exactly IS God's will?

Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Col 1:9  For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding

1Th 4:1  Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. 

1Th 4:2  For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 

1Th 4:3  For this is the will of God

1Th 5:18  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 

1Pe 4:2  That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 

1Pe 2:15  For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men

Psa 143:10  Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness. 

Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 

Mat 12:50  For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. 

2Co 5:15  And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

Eph 6:5  Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; 

Eph 6:6  Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; 

Eph 6:7  With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: 

Heb 13:21  Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 

1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 

Mic 6:8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Mat 6:33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 

1Ti 2:3  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 

1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 

Do you know what the will of God is?

Glory in the Lord.

1Co 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 

1Co 1:31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Christ is our wisdom.

Christ is our righteousness.

Christ is our sanctification.

Christ is our redemption.

2Co_3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

We are not supposed to believe we have wisdom of our own. We are not supposed to become righteous by ourselves and claim we are righteous. We cannot claim sanctification as if we can sanctify ourselves. We have no redemption of our own.  So why are we constantly trying to become all these things, to have these thing by our own merit?  We have to hold up Christ and it's HIS wisdom, HIS righteousness, HIS sanctification, HIS redemption that exists in us, not some mingled mash up of ours and His.

We try so hard to be 'good' not realizing that no matter how good we deem ourselves it doesn't matter. God doesn't care about how good we think we are. God cares about our trusting in Christ to be good for us.  Faith in Christ, not in ourselves. 

We Love Others to Reveal Christ's Love, Not Our Ability to Love.

Col 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

Anyone can accept Christ as their Savior, no exceptions to that at all. ANYONE, it doesn't matter whether or not a person appears a certain way. There is no single appearance that labels one a Christian.

Sometimes we see people and by their behaviors, their words and such we can't imagine them belong to Christ.

Even the worst of the worst can belong to Christ and their walk with Christ can be a work in progress that we are witnessing. The guidance through each fire a person faces to refine them isn't ours to question. We are to LOVE, this is our only action.

It isn't easy loving those who are outwardly the worst of the worst in humanity. Loving those who are hateful to us, those who abuse us, those who hurt those we love, who torture the innocent, this is OUR commandment.

We love others to reveal Christ's love, NOT our ability to love.

Our loving doesn't mean was condone what others do. Our loving doesn't mean we are encouraging the evil behaviors of anyone! Our loving doesn't mean we enjoy what pain is towards us or pain that is inflicted upon others.  Our loving with Christ's love is HIS loving, HIS forgiving, HIS dying to SAVE all who would be saved! 

Our Savior Overcame This World.

We are only complete in Christ.

Joh_16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

We already know that in this world we will have TRIBULATION. All the tragedies that exist for mankind that bring us heartache and pain, that make our lives full of one horror after another are a part of the tribulation of this world. We are NOT told we will have horror-free lives.  We are told we WILL have tribulation. Then we are told to BE of good CHEER.   So incredibly contradictory! You're going through life's most extreme anguish and you are told to be of good cheer. How? How is it possible to be of good cheer when you are in the midst of tribulations?  There is only ONE way.  The realization that our Savior OVERCAME this world.

Our Savior overcame.

We overcome through our SAVIOR.

If we try to do it without our Savior, we will fail.  There may be a false sense of self-sufficiency that many people will possess, but Satan excels at giving people that particular belief. All the self-confidence in the world means nothing without Christ-confidence.

We are only complete in Christ.

Col 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: 

Col 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 

Col 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 

Col 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 

Col 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 

Col 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it

More on this tomorrow by the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Falsely Wise.

Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 

Rom 1:22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools

Vain deceit causes us to believe in ourselves- not Christ. Vain deceit causes us to believe in others- not Christ.

Vain in our imaginings, foolish hearts darkened, falsely wise really are fools.

Too often we imagine we are Christians when really we play at being Christians. We put on our Christian guise and it fools even us because we don't want to follow the hard truths of Christ's. We smooth our Christian costume while doing what we tell ourselves is the work of our Lord, wrinkle free we are pleased. Being a Christian isn't about an easy life. Being a Christian isn't our happiness. Being a Christian isn't about us. Being a Christian is about Christ's salvation. Once we comprehend that our Savior died for us so we may have eternal life with Him, we then know that the life we are living now is going to be filled with pain of all varying sorts. We comprehend that we have entered a war, not a luxury life. We enter this war and we live our lives enlisting others to enter the very same war. 

We have NO wisdom of our own, none. This isn't about us! It's so incredibly easy for us to twist things so we are the center of it all, pushing Christ out of our lives rather than allowing Him in.

As long as we focus on ourselves we are not focused on Christ, it's true.

Ask yourself if you are thinking of yourself or Christ in any given moment and pay attention to your answer because that will tell you a lot. If you don't want to hear your own answer then you need to ask yourself why.

May God help us all and please, keep us from the evil of our vain deceit.

All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, now and forever!

Vain Deceit.

Col 2:6  As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 

Col 2:7  Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 

Col 2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 

The world will try to bend you to its design there is no other way around it really. Satan rules this world and he will do all he can to deceive us. I can't talk about this enough because deception is so insidious. The very nature of deceit is not knowing you are deceived until it's too late.  God's word give us all the truth we need so we are NOT deceived, only we have to heed His word. It does no good at all to have a book of instructions if you never read it, never study it, never learn from its contents. Like many people with instructions in general - they believe they can get on without them, knowing what's best. Others will read a few of the instructions and go on ahead with things believing they can figure out the rest. There are many different approaches to a book of instructions, some will read the book all the way through but not in a way of comprehending, but rather surface reading.  If we do not read God's word we will be deceived. If we do not study God's word we will be deceived. If we do not seek full comprehension, we will be deceived. 

We need to be Rooted and Built Up in Christ!

We need to be Stablished in the Faith!

We need to be Thankful!

We have to Beware of men who would Spoil us! And they will spoil us with Philosophy, with Vain Deceit, with Traditions of Men, with Rudiments of this World!

We must believe these truths, we must. If we ignore the truth we allow ourselves to be deceived, and it is a vain deceit isn't it?

Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 

Rom 1:22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools

Vain deceit causes us to believe in ourselves- not Christ. Vain deceit causes us to believe in others- not Christ.

More on this tomorrow by the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord!

Tribulation

Do you have tribulation in your life?

Definition of 'tribulation'-

trib·u·la·tion-

a cause of great trouble or suffering.

synonyms:        suffering, distress, trouble, misery, wretchedness, unhappiness, sadness, heartache, woe, grief, sorrow, pain, anguish, agony;  difficulty, problem, worry, anxiety, burden, cross to bear, ordeal, trial, adversity, hardship, tragedy, trauma, affliction

Seriously, do you have tribulation in your life? Are you suffering, in distress, troubled, in misery, wretchedness, are you unhappy, sad, full of heartache, woe, grief, sorrow, pain…. Just read the list above. Are you experiencing any tribulation?

If you are- don't be surprised.

Joh 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. 

The world offers us tribulation. We are told in the world we SHALL HAVE tribulation.  End of story, we are going to have tribulation in our lives.  To believe that you don't deserve tribulation, that you should be exempt from tribulation is a deception Satan pushes at us. Satan wants us to believe that we aren't to have tribulation in our lives so that we consider our lives messed up and ourselves failures because our lives are so filled with tribulation.  Satan will do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING he can to deceive us and he's done a great job. A lot of people let the tribulation in their lives tear them away from Christ.

Christ told us that we'd have tribulation but He also told us that in HIM we'd have peace. NO WHERE ELSE can we find true peace, NO WHERE. Satan wants us looking all over the place, in fact anywhere but to Christ where peace is found.  Satan will throw in our faces that we don't have peace so we must not have Christ, is he right or wrong? What did our Savior do when He was buried in tribulation? He agonized with the Father in prayer. He wasn't laid back, matter of fact, everything is fine and dandy in that Garden of Gethsemane. 

Luk_22:44  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Jesus was in AGONY.  Did that mean He'd lost the peace of the Father? That He was no longer trusting God? No, it did not mean those things at all. We can feel the effects of tribulation and still retain the knowledge that there is peace in Jesus Christ our Lord. We can still cling to the promise of His salvation and the hope of life eternally without tribulation. Right now in this world we will have tribulation we can't allow ourselves to believe otherwise. 

Joh 14:27  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 

Our hearts, in the deepest part of us we must know that in Christ all our hope rests. In His peace - something the world CANNOT give us we can live. We may be troubled and afraid, but it doesn't have to be a HEART troubling, HEART fear that pushes out the hope of our Savior! We must keep the knowledge of Christ's peace in our hearts. All by His grace!